The Benefits of Effective Strategic Facilitation

How often have you left a meeting, offsite, or planning session that was a complete waste of time? Sadly, this is more often the case than it should be. We ask people to step away from overwhelming workloads to attend, whether in-person or virtually – and then give them a frustrating, unproductive experience. It’s no wonder people turn off at the mere mention of a meeting or offsite.

When the right people come together ready, willing, and prepared to work together toward a common goal, you’re halfway to meeting success.

The other half requires the right leadership.

Although great facilitators can make this look easy, it’s a hugely complex endeavor to prepare and to lead a group through creative problem solving while attending to interpersonal dynamics, energy levels, and feasibility of solutions and ideas.

Successful meetings require the right preparation: accurately framing the challenge or opportunity; synthesizing all relevant inputs; engaging key stakeholders; aligning objectives and desired outcomes; making a detailed agenda for the session, and designing the right mix of engaging experiences. This is true whether the meeting happens in-person or virtually.

Working Together

I partner with clients to design and deliver engaging sessions that move business forward. For over 23 years, I’ve brought my strategy expertise and passion for great facilitation to each project, and my mission is to ensure not only that clients achieve their desired objectives but also that every participant sees the value and feels valued in the process.

Here are some of the benefits my clients have shared about working with me:

• Partners closely with clients, working together toward achieving a shared vision
• Commits to excellence in both design and delivery via shared ownership
• Sees the big picture, distills key themes, and identifies the real issues and potential opportunities
• Creates a constructive, safe environment for open, genuine communication and collaboration
• Leverages and maximizes participants’ strengths, skills, and expertise
• Maintains high levels of participant engagement, focus, energy,and fun
• Recognizes the influence of interpersonal dynamics, names hard truths, and holds people to account for being part of the solution
• Galvanizes groups to collaborate and to take accountability for being part of the solution
• Understands the influence of interpersonal dynamics and provides perspective, reality checks, and a kick in the butt when needed
• Moves groups from exploration and discussion to achieving the aligned outcomes and identifying next steps

Read more testimonials here.

Having facilitated with some of the top companies in the world in cities across five continents, I bring expertise, energy, flexibility, and effectiveness to the facilitation process. I’ve successfully worked with diverse groups with myriad objectives and challenges:

• Leadership team formation and alignment
• Visioning, mission, and purpose development
• Program design and development
• Global meetings
• Team challenges
• Strategic planning
• New product development
• Creative ideation and brainstorming
• Project kickoffs
• Learning and development

Beliefs that Influence My Approach to Facilitation

Preparation is essential. I partner with you to prepare and design the engagement, synthesizing the relevant inputs and aligning on objectives and flow and taking into account the unique needs and dynamics of the respective participants.

Time is precious. A well-designed meeting fully engages the right people at the right time and only for the time needed to achieve the desired outcome.

Every participant adds unique value – and is valued. Respect and presence are operating credos, and we leverage each person’s capabilities, experience, and ideas.

We are better together. When participants truly team up, they are more creative, generative, and inspired, leading to breakthrough solutions and collective ownership.

Work and play go hand-in-hand. Meetings don’t need to be painful drudgery – they can actually be fun. And research shows that groups produce much more successful results when they contribute and enjoy the process. I embrace the “Yes, and” philosophy that I learned studying improv at The Second City.

I’m thrilled when I have to kick the participants out of the room because they don’t want to stop the discussion – and when I get updates that ideas and solutions are become amazing realities.

Looking for a strategic partner to facilitate your next meeting, workshop, or event? Let’s get the ball rolling – I look forward to hearing from you.